The Federal Trade Commission asked a federal judge on Wednesday to delay a trial in a case of using deceptive practices in its Prime subscription program, citing staffing and budgetary challenges at the government agency.
Jonathan Cohen, a lawyer for the FTC, made the request before U.S. District Judge John Chun, who is overseeing the legal proceedings from a 2023 lawsuit the commission filed against the e-commerce giant in Washington state.
鈥淥ur resource constraints are severe and really unique to this moment,鈥� Cohen said during a status hearing on Wednesday. 鈥淲e have lost employees in the agency, in our division and on the case team.鈥�
When the judge asked if the agency鈥檚 challenges were due to recent cuts in the federal government, Cohen said it was, adding that some employees chose to leave the FTC following the sent by Elon Musk鈥檚 Department of Government Efficiency in January. Staff members who resigned also have not been replaced due to a government hiring freeze, he said.
The Amazon trial had been scheduled to start in September. The FTC is seeking to relax some of the deadlines in the case and a delay akin to a two-month continuance. The agency does not want to 鈥渕ove the trial back more than a couple of months,鈥� Cohen said.
Currently, the agency's legal team is 鈥渞acing at considerable cost鈥� to meet a late April deadline for discovery while at the same time dealing with restrictive rules on purchasing court documents and travel, Cohen explained.
Other factors could hamper staffers' preparations for the trial, he said. In April, FTC employees will have to spend time packing up and vacating their office building so they can potentially move into 鈥渁n abandoned USAID facility,鈥� Cohen said.
Chun, the judge, asked how 鈥渢hings are going to be different in two months鈥� with the issues the agency is experiencing.
Cohen responded by saying he 鈥渃annot guarantee if things won鈥檛 be even worse.鈥�
鈥淏ut there are a lot of reasons to believe ... we have been through the brunt of it, at least for a while,鈥� he said.
During the hearing, John Hueston, an attorney representing Amazon, pushed back on the agency's request. He said most of the FTC attorneys assigned to the Amazon case were still employed by the agency.
Even in the case of staff turnover, the government still lacks the grounds to seek a delay since changes in legal teams happen often, Hueston argued. Amazon executives and trial lawyers already cleared their schedules for a September trial, and the company has wanted to clear its name for more than two years, he said.
鈥淲e really want to keep the date" for the trial, Hueston said.
The lawsuit, which was brought under former FTC Chair Lina Khan, alleged Amazon had enrolled consumers in the Prime program without consent and made it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions.
The agency filed the case months before it submitted against the retail and technology company, accusing it of having monopolistic control . Attorneys for that case, which is scheduled to go to trial in October 2026, presented economic arguments in court last week.
Like other tech companies, Amazon has been attempting to forge friendlier ties with President Donald Trump, who repeatedly criticized the company during his first term.
In December, said he was 鈥渙ptimistic鈥� about Trump's second term. The same month, the company said it would donate $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund. Bezos, along , was also a guest at the inauguration.
This week, Amazon's Prime Video service began the long-running TV show that boosted Trump's profile before he ran for president. The company is also working on a documentary that offers an 鈥渦nprecedented behind-the-scenes look鈥� into the life of first lady Melania Trump.
Meanwhile, Bezos has The Washington Post, which he owns, that some critics have cast as favorable to Trump.
Before the election, Bezos defended the newspaper鈥檚 decision a presidential candidate as 鈥渞ight鈥� and 鈥減rincipled.鈥� that he ordered the non-endorsement to protect his business interests.
Haleluya Hadero, The Associated Press
